GOP gains its 41st voice in Senate

Republican Scott Brown rode a wave of voter anger to beat Democrat Martha Coakley in the election to fill the Senate seat occupied by Sen. Edward M. Kennedy for 47 years before his death in August and once held by John F. Kennedy before he became president in 1961.

The loss was a stunning embarrassment for the White House.

Brown will become the 41st Republican in the 100-member Senate, which could allow the GOP to block the health care bill. Democrats needed Coakley to win for a 60th vote to thwart Republican filibusters.

Brown became the first Republican elected to the U.S. Senate from supposedly true-blue Democratic Massachusetts since 1972.